J.G. Strijdom

Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom (14 July 1893-24 August 1958) was Prime Minister of South Africa from 30 November 1954 to 24 August 1958, succeeding D.F. Malan and preceding Hendrik Verwoerd.

Biography
Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom was born in Klipfontein, Cape Colony in 1893. He graduated from university at Stellenbosch and Pretoria, submitting the first ever application in Afrikaans to practice law in 1918. The republican nationalist became active for the National Party in 1923 and was elected to Parliament in 1929. He joined D.F. Malan's opposition to J.B.M. Herzog's alliance with Jan Smuts in 1933, and, hollowing the split of the NP in 1934, rebuilt the NP organization in the Transvaal. Minister of Lands and Irrigation from 1948, in 1954 the fiery orator became teh first Prime Minister without direct memories of the Second Boer War. His most lasting policies concerned the strengthening of the government's freedom of maneuver on apartheid, adding sympathizers to the number of Senators and high court judges so that any apartheid laws would be guaranteed a smooth passage. Under his Minister of Bantu Affairs, Hendrik Verwoerd, mixed-race trade unions were abolished, racial segregation in universities was encouraged, anbd people of mixed race were disenfranchised. He died in office, having just secured the NP's biggest victory to date.